French Pat. No. 537,242 describes a trouser press which encloses the garment to be pressed along its entire length and neatly restores the crease and eliminates wrinkles. This arrangement has a pair of identical boards and a heating plate of the same shape. The one board is laid on a horizontal surface and the trousers are arranged with one leg lying flat on this board. Then the heating plate, which is formed at one end with a cutout, is laid atop this one flat leg with the trousers crotch passing through the heating-plate cutout. The other leg is flattened out atop this heating plate, and the other board is put on top of this leg. The boards are then fastened together by some sort of catches and the heating plate is energized for a while so the combined effect of heat and pressure presses the garment.
Obviously the use of such a device is relatively onerous, and some judge it harder than pressing the trousers with a standard iron and ironing board. The device is cumbersome to use and takes up a fair amount of space when being loaded or used.
In addition such an arrangement is wholly for at-home use. It is far too bulky to travel with or pack in luggage.